Although China is not a federal country, its public finance system does carry features of fiscal federalism. Since 1949, although the central government has consistently sought to exercise strong control over the country, it has at times done so by decentralist rather than centralist policies. The Dengist policies since economic reform began, for example, have had a strongly decentralist element, with continuing devolvement of control to the provincial governments, sometimes to such a degree that some observers have commented: "the centre pretends to rule and the provinces pretend to be ruled". This is also a period that witnessed the revival of old regionalisms, as well as the creation of new regionalisms brought about by increased local autonomy, rapid economic growth and increasingly globalizing trade and business linkages. While the oft-cited "China deconstructs" scenario seems at present far-fetched, the challenges posed by central-peripheral conflicts, ethnic resource contest and ethnoterritorial aspirations are real, in particular as they are being exacerbated by the country’s "retreat from equality�? and growing interregional economic disparity. In the light of these daunting exigencies, this paper explores the political economy of regional development in China, focusing on the intricate link between the country’s ethnic diversity and the role of the State in the economy, as the Asian giant warily enters a new stage of economic reform.
Keywords: China, regionalism, ethnic diversity, inequalities, uneven development, regional disparities

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze strategic policy implications arising from possible threats and opportunities in the face of the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse. The focus of the paper is not on the regional approach through mainly regional co-operations but more on policy strategies and responses at the national level. Depending on their degree of national economic development, economic structure and comparative advantage, eight strategic positionings have been identified. Of these eight positionings, direct competition is considered as an unwise move, considering China being endowed with relatively cheap labour resources. Together with its huge domestic market which can serve as a magnet for direct foreign investment, competition in attracting FDI can be a daunting task for most to the Southeast Asian countries. Instead, competition based on niche areas through branding, for instance provides a feasible alternative. The other alternative is to avoid direct competition by upgrading its economy, venturing into those areas where China has no comparative advantage as well as looking inward for sources of growth. Others may adopt ‘connecting’ strategies such as complementing or supplementing the Chinese economy by meeting China’s increasing demand for natural resources or exploiting its huge domestic market. Still others may explore the possibilities of forging strategic alliance with China in the global market or playing the role of a middleman between China the West.

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The purpose of the paper is to examine the economic impact of China on the Southeast Asian countries, mainly in terms of trade and investment. The paper attempts to examine whether the rise of China poses a threat to Southeast Asia as a region in the area of international trade, especially competition in the third markets. Can they be comrades rather than competitors in international market? Secondly, the paper also questions the concentration of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China implies a diversion of FDI away from the region. Are the FDI in China and Southeast Asian region complement each other in the international division of labour? On the other hand, the increasing role of China as an international trader and global investor provides an opportunity for Southeast Asia countries to integrate with the Chinese economy. The huge domestic market of China also provides vast opportunities for investment, especially through connections of their respective ethnic Chinese businesses in the region. In return, Southeast Asian countries, through their respective ethnic groups can also play a middleman role between China and the West, as well as between China and India together with the Middle East.

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The study investigates the efficiency of local public educational expenditure of 31 provinces in China during 2005-2010, using the Slack-based Measurement (SBM) directional distance function. The results show that public educational expenditure is the most efficient in eastern China, followed by middle and western areas. The inefficiency can be explained mostly by the number of master graduates, while the impacts of the number of undergraduates and graduates from secondary school are
also significant. Additionally, bootstrap method is applied to explore the contextual factors influencing the efficiency. The results suggest that economic development and urbanization process increase the efficiency, while the state-owned industry obstructs the development.

Primarily due to the large gaps in economic and institutional contexts between
the developed and emerging markets, business model innovation (BMI) at the
subsidiary level plays an important role for the success of small and mediumsized
firms (SMEs) from the developed markets operating in the emerging
markets as top-down venture. While some studies claim that the direct
involvement of headquarters (HQ) of SMEs in the activities of their subsidiaries
is essential, surprisingly little is known about how HQ specifically facilitates BMI
at the subsidiary level, especially in the context of top-down venture. Adopting
the method of comparative and longitudinal case study, we tracked the BMI
process of six SMEs from Denmark operating in China. The emergent
framework indicates that entrepreneurial aspiration and flexibility at the HQ level
2
Asia Research Centre, CBS, Copenhagen Discussion Paper 2013-42
are two primary facilitators of BMI at the subsidiary level via the mechanisms of
commitment and cooperation. We also found that BMI performance would
influence the two facilitators in a feedback loop. Hence, we can contribute to the
literatures on international entrepreneurship and strategic entrepreneurship by
integrating the two previously separated research streams via their shared
theme of accelerated learning. In particular, this study helps solve the puzzle
concerning fast and successful international venture.

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Identity formation is probably one of the most discussed aspects of strategic positioning within anthropology, sociology and political science. In general notions of identity have been based on either an absolutist or primordial understanding of belonging or a constructionalist view in which social and political positioning in terms of identity formation are governed by a given societal context. This paper bases its understanding of identity formation on the latter approach. This means that depending of context individuals have several different although related identities to choose between when manoeuvring in a complex and dynamic social environment. Identity formation, achieved or ascribed, and its various forms of externalisation are thus negotiated and not absolute. The dynamic behind this notion of identity formation is individual agency strategically manipulating social, economic and political positioning in a given societal setup. To illustrate the complexities and in this case negative ramifications of social engineering the article focuses on inter-ethnic relations and industrial development in Penang, Malaysia.

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The paper aims to address the question whether the dynamic of autoworker unionism in South Korea and Malaysia was conditioned by, and eventually also influenced the globalization processes in the local auto industry? The conclusion is a contextualized "yes", and the core argument is the following: The financial crisis in 1997 was the dramatic peak of financial globalization in East Asia in the 1990s, and it did accelerate the existing trend in Korea towards centralized unionism in the auto industry, while it suspended the trend in the Malaysian auto industry towards decentralized unionism. Although the Korean and Malaysian unions were affected by the financial crisis from different structural and strategic positions, and were exposed to different national policies and corporate strategies of crisis management, the Korean unions and Malaysian unions generally followed, respectively, a more radical and militant and a more pragmatic and moderate strategy. In the global-local perspective we face two paradoxes. The first paradox is that in spite of the difference in union ideology, the outcome in terms of industrial relations (IR) institutions was rather similar in the sense that the auto industry contained a mixture of industrial and enterprise unions and formal or informal federations of these unions, and that collective bargaining was by and large undertaken bilaterally at the enterprise level. This situation was generated by a dynamic, which took the Malaysian system down from a centralized IR system within the low technology assembly industry (the globally subordinated local OEMs) to a rather decentralized IR system within the SOE-MNC controlled industry. The Korean system became more centralized through the confrontations between radical enterprise unions and authoritarian employers and authorities within an auto industry, which over time become much more indigenized, technologically advanced, export-oriented and diversified into multiple auto manufacturers and an under-wood of component suppliers. Yet, in both auto industries the large enterprise unions resisted organizational centralization, which could impede their autonomy. Due to the strength of unions of the market leading firms a breakthrough did happen neither in Korea nor in Malaysia, although the Koreans were a step ahead of the Malaysians having established a federation of metalworkers unions, including the important autoworkers unions. The second paradox is that the radicalism of the Korean autoworker unions was maintained during 1990s globalization of the auto industry, while radicalism was abandoned by the Malaysian autoworker unions in favor of union pragmatism, when the indigenization of the Malaysian auto industry unfolded since the early 1980s and a local auto supplier industry had been formed. This cross-country difference is partly explained by the different position held by the Korean and Malaysian auto companies in the global and local auto value chain. The radicalism and effectiveness of Korean autoworker unions sustained the development of dynamic efficiency among Korean auto manufacturing firms. In the same way, the intra-industry differences in wages and working conditions among auto manufacturing firms and components supplier firms were also related to the stratification of the domestic auto value chain, and this uneven distribution of benefits created obstacles of centralized unionization and collective bargaining. The centralized IR system in Malaysia evolved in an auto industry composed primarily of firms assembling imported CKD kits of components. The inequality of employment conditions between auto manufacturers and component suppliers was a driver of the strategy of centralized unionism and collective bargaining in Korea, while the inequality was not perceived as that significant by the Malaysian industrial union, since they had been dealing with these problems by the early 1990s.
Keywords: Globalisation, trade unions, automobile industry, global value chain theory, East Asia, Malaysia, South Korea.

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(1) The essence of Yin-Yang is that yin and yang are contrary yet
complementary.
阴阳的本质是阴阳是相生相克的关系。
(2) This contrary yet complementary relationship can be described by three
characteristics of Yin-Yang: nonexclusivability, transformability, and
coopetitionability. Nonexclusivability means that anything contains yin
and yang elements and neither yin nor yang elements can be excluded
because within both elements there is a seed of the opposite element.
Due to the existence of a seed of the opposite element, the yin and yang
elements can be mutually transformed when the opposite seed grow to a
certain size. Due to this possible growth of the inside opposite element,
the relationship between yin and yang and their inside opposite element
is one of competition and cooperation, i.e. coopetition. When the
configuration ratio of an element’s opposite seed is within the range of
1% to 25%1, their relationship is more co-operative than competitive, and therefore there is more synergy than tradeoff between them. The closer
the ratio is to 25%, the stronger the synergy. When the ratio is within the
range of 25% to 49%, their relationship is more competitive than
cooperative, and therefore there is more tradeoff than synergy between
them. The closer the ratio is to 49%, the stronger the tradeoff.
阴阳的相生相克关系可以描述为三个特性：不可排除性、相互转化性、竞
争合作性。不可排除性是指任何事物都包含阴阳两个对立元素，二者之任
何一个均不可能被排除在我，这是因为在阴或阳元素内部天然的包含着对
立元素的种子。正是因为这个种子的天然存在，阴和阳元素可以互相转
化，这种转化发生在对立元素种子成长到一定程度的时候。正是由于这种
对立元素的成长可能性，阴或阳元素和它内部的对立元素之间的关系是既
竞争又合作的。当内部的对立元素占总体元素的力量比例在1%到25%之
间时，两者的关系是合作多于竞争，越靠近25%这个点，这种合作的协同
效果也强烈。当这个搭配比例处于25%到49%之间时，它们的关系将是
竞争多于合作，也就是他们更多互相排斥而非互相促进。当这个比例越靠
近49%，这种排斥效应越强烈。

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Over the past two decades, considerable interest has grown in high growth firms (HGFs). However, the concept of HGFs still remains controversial. One of the most controversial issues is size and age of these firms. The present study argues that the current literature on HGFs may offer little help in addressing this issue given the constantly changing population of HGFs. This study uses an alternative conceptual framework and proposes a concept of ‘High Impact Group of Firms’ (HIGF). It explains the HIGFs in the framework of a new stream of literature that focuses on business dynamics, productivity growth and industry evolution, formulates testable hypotheses, and uses a novel methodology to identify it. The empirical analysis is based on the plant level panel data of 22 manufacturing industries in Indian manufacturing during the period 2000-01 to 2005-06. Our empirical results reveal that much depends on the industry/sector specific characteristics.

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Among the people in Greater China (People’s Republic of China [PRC], Taiwan and Hong Kong), needless to say, economic incentive, political relations and business relations all conjure up an ethos of relations, if not close bonds, among Hong Kong, Taiwan and the PRC. The rise of China matters to everyone who lives in Greater China. Hong Kong is already part of China. Taiwan, according to the PRC, cannot be independent without running the risk of a war. Yet, my question is that are those Chinese the same in Greater China? Do they have different identities? If living with China is inevitable, do they need to search for a new identity to face the challenges?
Keywords: Chineseness, Greater China, identity, national boundaries, Hong Kong, Taiwan

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Business model innovation plays a very important role in developing competitive advantage when multinational small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from developed country enter into emerging markets because of the large contextual distances or gaps between the emerging and developed economies. Many prior researches have shown that the foreign subsidiaries play important role in shaping the overall strategy of the parent company. However, little is known about how subsidiary specifically facilitates business model innovation (BMI) in emerging markets. Adopting the method of comparative and longitudinal case study, we tracked the BMI processes of four SMEs from Denmark operating in China. Using resource-based view (RBV), we develop one theoretical framework which indicates that initiative-taking and improvisational capability of subsidiary are the two primary facilitators of business model innovation in emerging markets. We find that high initiative-taking and strong improvisational capability can accelerate the business model innovation. Our research contributes to the literatures on international and strategic entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to describe how a commercially successful innovation occurs
with the altering of the existing competitive structure in a market under
environmental and competitive pressures. I study the history of the laundry
detergent market in Japan and elucidate the manner in which Kao accomplished
an innovation and increased their market share during the late 1980s. Kao
introduced their new detergent Attack through a biotechnological innovation and
dramatically changed the competitive structure to their advantage. The
innovations introduced were of two kinds 1) fermentation engineering
technologies to improve the cleaning performance of detergents by using
alkaline cellulase, and 2) concentration of detergents to four times their earlier
strength through changes in their powder processing technologies. This
historical innovation that occurred in the laundry detergent market in Japan has
a contemporary implication because combining firms’ activities and
environmental sustainability has been one of the most crucial topics over recent
years.

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Assessing the Impact of Global Economics on Industrial Developments and Inter-Ethnic Relations in Penang, Malaysia

Jacobsen, Michael(Frederiksberg, 2010)

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Abstract:

Due to the increasingly integration and thus inter-dependency between the global economy, a given national economy and their societal embedment a triangulation between the three elements is a must if one is to understand the dynamic processes between them. This article focuses especially on the national economic and societal aspects of such a triangulation thus positioning the national dependencies of the global economy in the background. The notion of triangulation is perceived by the author to be more holistic and relational oriented compared to an approach based on decoupling. The latter aims through sector defined studies to assess the level of connectivity between global and national economics as well as between them and their societal embedment in order to detect whether there are potential fault-lines between the three thus mitigating the notion of decoupling. This article applies a triangular approach on the electronic and electrical manufacturing sector in Penang. It concentrates in particular on how companies within this sector relate to pertinent governmental initiated industry policies and the impact of the inter-ethnic related affirmative action policy in this connection. The global aspect of the triangulation has thus been put on a back burner in this study, as the article emphasises the importance of pointing towards the inter-dependency between the political, the inter-ethnic and the economic sectors in Penang, as they are perceived to condition each other.

The aim of this article is to take a critical look at how to perceive informal
institutions within institutional theory. Douglas North in his early works on
institutional theory divided the national institutional framework into two main
categories, formal and informal institution or constraints as he called them. The
formal constraints consisted of political rules, judicial decisions and economic
contracts, whereas informal constraints consisted of socially sanctioned norms
of behaviour, which are embedded in culture and value systems. As formal
constraints are straight forward to deal with the informal ones are much more
vaguely defined and thus more difficult to grasp analytical. This imprecise
perception of informal constraints is surprising as they basically constitute the
foundation of the society in question, whereas formal constraints ‘only’
constitute the functional aspects of the state apparatus in that particular society.
In order to, however, begin excavating what lies further behind the informal
constraints and their impact on the functionality of the formal constraints it is
important to take an overall critical look at the way in which institutional theory
relate to a given societal context. This article suggest that this is done by first
employing an overall international business (IB) approach to analyse a national
economy, in this case the Malaysian economy. This will not, however, be done
according to the generally accepted procedure in IB studies using either a firm
specific or a generic market-based approach, but rather by employing a
combination of selected IB theories and a ‘glocalised reading’ on how the
relationship between the global economy and a national economy pan out and
how this translate into impacting a given societal setup. In other words, IB
theories are not only employed in the economic sphere, but also confronted with
a variety of societal factors that have a positive or negative impact on the
explanatory power of the individual IB theories employed.

The crane has been an ancient symbol of longevity in China carrying with it intimation of distinctive principles of ancient China; harmony, patience and graceful coexistence with nature. It is ironic that the construction crane is the new symbol of a changing land, where old hutong neighborhoods are disappearing as fast as the bird and its habitat. Is this new crane helping to create a harmonious society, as the HuWen administration would have you believe? The economic boom fueled in large part by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games brings with it many new construction jobs, labour issues and in some cases new forms of corruption. Does this development reinforce solidarity and good working conditions in a country where unions are largely controlled by the government? Or do business networks, guanxi, continue to dominate business relationships and hamper the achievement of good working conditions? These questions will be examined, including issues such as corruption, safety and working conditions. Comparisons to labour issues in the United States will be included.

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This paper examines recent debates about reproductive policy in Singapore by examining the responses of two different groups of women - women Members of Parliament and feminist activists. Women currently make up 10% of MPs in Singapore. Although this figure is low when compared to average rates of female representation globally, it is the highest level in Singapore since Independence. All these women are members of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in power since 1959. While publicly supportive of the view of the PAP male elite, this group of women has introduced a level of critique into reproductive policy not previously seen by the Singapore public. Local women’s groups too have played a visible role in public debates about population policy. The feminist group, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) has had a long interest in reproductive policy issues and released its own position paper to address the government’s recent policy making. This paper examines the responses of these two groups of women towards the PAP’s pro-natalist stance. It explores the extent to which these women have challenged the PAP as well as the obstacles to an independent feminist voice on population matters
Keywords: Singapore, population policy, reproductive policy, total fertility rate, feminism, women in politics

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The paper addresses the importance of network trade between Malaysia and China and assesses the extent of product upgrading in components traded. The study brings to the fore the following. First, China is emerging as an important market for component imports relative to component exports. As such the increase in two-way flows of parts and components for further processing and development, implying a shift away from assembly-end operations, remains insignificant. Second, network trade appears to have improved the quality of exports (reflecting the ‘moving up of the value chain’) destined to China, but the gaps between the unit values of export and imports have narrowed in the recent past, implying less product development. network trade, two-way trade, unit values, relative unit values, product upgrading

The concept of transnationalism is characterised by an important contradiction. While it makes an important contribution to the literature on identity by focussing on the themes of hybridity and pluralism, when it discusses the issue of transnational capital, it falls into the trap of essentialising ethnicity. Transnational theorist argue that there exists a pan-ethnic unity among the Chinese diaspora that would enable this community to emerge as a new economic force globally. The case studies in this essay reveal, however, that transnational networks do not influence the way ethnic groups do business with co-ethnics in other countries. This study argues that there is significant competition among Chinese-owned enterprises, which explains the dynamism of these firms. There is also much evidence of inter-ethnic corporate ties involving Chinese firms. These findings bring into question the importance of common ethnic identity in transnational business transactions undertaken by the Chinese companies.
Keywords: Transnationalism, Chinese Identity, Networks, Enterprise Development.

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A Case of Danish Multinationals and their Subsidiaries in P.R. China and India

Worm, Verner; Xu, Xiaojun; Shinha, Jai b.P.(København, 2005)

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Abstract:

By drawing on a selective review of literature, we propose that the culture of Danish multinationals and transnational organizations interface with the Chinese and Indian societal and managerial cultures in order to create hybrid cultures in Danish subsidiaries in P. R. China and India. The hybrid culture moderates the relationships between the forms of knowledge and internationalization of multinationals on one hand and the transfer of knowledge on the other. It is postulated that stable cultural frames of the Danes and Chinese managers, both having stable cultural frame, will require long drawn efforts to overcome the cultural distance and transfer the various forms and levels of knowledge in the initial years of the subsidiaries. On the other hand, Indians’ style of switching their cultural frames will create less entry problems but more recurring problems once Danish multinationals will get going. Once the postulates are empirically validated, potential implications for strategic interventions are briefly discussed.
Keywords: Knowledge transfer, culture, MNCs.

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The recent Bo Xilai affair has created strains in the Chinese political system
and has intensified the power struggle concerning the new leadership
appointments due to take place at the 18th Party Congress. The pressure on
the political system is intensified by a number of social phenomena such as
increased fragmentation, vested interests, corruption, social unrest, increased
income and social inequalities and a de facto reform stop since 2009. Some
scholars believe that we now see the end of ‘resilient authoritarianism’ and
that China either will experience a political and social collapse or move
towards a democratic system. However, developments since 1989 show the
regime’s amazing ability to revitalize its organizational capabilities and regain
its Mandate of Heaven. It may be too early to declare the Party over.